LI-ghtcycle
10 MW
Hello all, I have been absent for many months now, but my health is on the up!
First off I want to again thanks Rassy for getting me into 'Bent bikes, they are amazingly pain free low impact capable machines!
When he was in the neighborhood he brought by his Vision R-40 Long Wheel Base bike to see if I had a place for it as he thought it might be something I would be interested in having!
At the time I was still too weak to do any real riding so it sat in the garage after nothing more than a 10-foot test ride on the drive way.
Fast forward to 5 days ago, and now I had a chance to ride it, and WOW!! WOW!! WOW!!
If not for his generous gift, I might not ever have been introduced to these heavenly machines!
Here's a pick of my new ride!
Once you "re-learn" to ride a bike, it's really not bad, it was hard to get used to leaning back at first, but now that I have the "kick off and pedal one side" enough to get going, it's pretty easy to get going. Hills from a dead stop were challenging at first, but now as long as I get the gears low enough previously to the stop, and start sort of perpendicular to the hill to get a running start, turning up the hill is no problem at all. 8)
After 3+ Months with no riding, I was able to go down then back up the 7 - 8% grade of hill that is 2+ miles long with out being winded or even breaking a sweat!!
I'm very amazed at how little effort it took to climb this hill using a recumbent! Therefore, given the fact that it has a 26" rear wheel, it's become my new favorite for a commuting/touring bike!
Well, now down to the main subject.
Here is a picture of another R-40 in the Short Wheel Base mode (it has a different boom attachment allowing for the removal of the linkage and current boom that the front forks are attached to) which is how I plan on trying out mine since the only thing I don't like is the uneasy feeling I get not having bars in front of me to hold onto not to mention not being able to attach all my favorite gizmos on the handle bars. This bike will be great for using my mid-drive and I believe I have a great place to locate it on the bike that will allow for easy drive chanin adjustment.
I plan on taking the swing arm from one of the junk frames I have laying around and cutting the tubing about 6-8 inches from the rear drop outs to form two " V's " of tubing that I can then attach to the underside of the seat using nothing more than the second mounting hole for the seat and another hole I will drill through the main frame beam to hang the motor from, and where as the front mount will be hinged, and gravity will naturally pull it down and forward allowing to easily tension the drive chain, and a second set of hinged mounts (much like the hinged seat stays of the recumbent) to allow the top slotted mounts closest to the rear to change angle as needed when getting correct tension on the drive chain.
I might have to add an additional chain guide to keep the pedal chain from hitting the motor & mounts, but other than that, I think it will be pretty straight-forward.
P.S. I would be replacing the current rear wheel with my nuvinci and putting a cushy balloon tire on the front as well, and if I don't like the SWB mode, I can still keep LWB and have the up-right bars to get an extra cushy ride, as it is now, this bike soaks up the bumps like nothing I have ever experienced!
Oh ya, I'm 'bent believer now!!
P.P.S
Here is a pic of a R-40 with the Over Seat Steering set-up I will be using:
First off I want to again thanks Rassy for getting me into 'Bent bikes, they are amazingly pain free low impact capable machines!
When he was in the neighborhood he brought by his Vision R-40 Long Wheel Base bike to see if I had a place for it as he thought it might be something I would be interested in having!
At the time I was still too weak to do any real riding so it sat in the garage after nothing more than a 10-foot test ride on the drive way.
Fast forward to 5 days ago, and now I had a chance to ride it, and WOW!! WOW!! WOW!!
If not for his generous gift, I might not ever have been introduced to these heavenly machines!
Here's a pick of my new ride!
Once you "re-learn" to ride a bike, it's really not bad, it was hard to get used to leaning back at first, but now that I have the "kick off and pedal one side" enough to get going, it's pretty easy to get going. Hills from a dead stop were challenging at first, but now as long as I get the gears low enough previously to the stop, and start sort of perpendicular to the hill to get a running start, turning up the hill is no problem at all. 8)
After 3+ Months with no riding, I was able to go down then back up the 7 - 8% grade of hill that is 2+ miles long with out being winded or even breaking a sweat!!
I'm very amazed at how little effort it took to climb this hill using a recumbent! Therefore, given the fact that it has a 26" rear wheel, it's become my new favorite for a commuting/touring bike!
Well, now down to the main subject.
Here is a picture of another R-40 in the Short Wheel Base mode (it has a different boom attachment allowing for the removal of the linkage and current boom that the front forks are attached to) which is how I plan on trying out mine since the only thing I don't like is the uneasy feeling I get not having bars in front of me to hold onto not to mention not being able to attach all my favorite gizmos on the handle bars. This bike will be great for using my mid-drive and I believe I have a great place to locate it on the bike that will allow for easy drive chanin adjustment.
I plan on taking the swing arm from one of the junk frames I have laying around and cutting the tubing about 6-8 inches from the rear drop outs to form two " V's " of tubing that I can then attach to the underside of the seat using nothing more than the second mounting hole for the seat and another hole I will drill through the main frame beam to hang the motor from, and where as the front mount will be hinged, and gravity will naturally pull it down and forward allowing to easily tension the drive chain, and a second set of hinged mounts (much like the hinged seat stays of the recumbent) to allow the top slotted mounts closest to the rear to change angle as needed when getting correct tension on the drive chain.
I might have to add an additional chain guide to keep the pedal chain from hitting the motor & mounts, but other than that, I think it will be pretty straight-forward.
P.S. I would be replacing the current rear wheel with my nuvinci and putting a cushy balloon tire on the front as well, and if I don't like the SWB mode, I can still keep LWB and have the up-right bars to get an extra cushy ride, as it is now, this bike soaks up the bumps like nothing I have ever experienced!
Oh ya, I'm 'bent believer now!!
P.P.S
Here is a pic of a R-40 with the Over Seat Steering set-up I will be using: